Hi From Florida - Very Newbie :)

[Zabeth317]

Hi Everyone,

I'm very new to the low carb lifestyle. I have been doing a lot of reading and research. I was planning on starting this on the 1st of the year.....but decided to get started now. Today is day 1

I'm following the Atkins plan and am in the induction phase. Went grocery shopping yesterday and bought only low carb. I know it will take a little while to get use to what I can have and what not to have.

I was a huge carb eater. I was writing things down for the past week to see how bad it was....I would consume around 500 carbs a day. I'm also a beer drinker....love it. But will give it up to lose this weight :( I pack my breakfasts and lunches each day for work. Have to get use to the no bread sandwiches or chips :) and find ideas for breakfasts.

Can you recommend a good low carb cookbook? Looking forward to conversing with you all.

Liz in Florida

[Verbena]

Welcome to the forum. This is a great place to get help, support, ideas. As to cookbooks, I must say that I haven't bought a low carb cookbook in the 3 years I've been doing this - and, quite truthfully, I love cookbooks, and have far more than anyone needs LOL. But I have several low carb blogs I visit regularly, and I have taken to just printing out recipes that look good to me - from the blogs, and otherwhere - and sticking them in a binder. This way I know all the recipes are appealing to me, and can be tweaked as necessary to suit my DH as well. And I can write all over the pages without feeling guilty LOL. As much as I love a good cookbook I have to admit that very few have more than a handful of recipes that appeal to me. Of course, the problem now is that my binder is getting full, but there are still so many recipes turning up online that I want to try LOL

[Zabeth317]

Thank you. That's a great idea ☺

[1DogDay]

Welcome Liz!

You were wise not to wait until the new year...I think putting it off is one of the worst things to do.

It takes a bit of getting used to, I only started on Nov. 30th myself, but am doing really well on it and after getting through some of the initial hurdles, I feel great now. People are even noticing and commenting that I look like I feel great. So much of the pain in my body is gone too, it's amazing :thup: !!!

Don't forget to have 2 cups of broth per day, that will really helps!

[Kristine]

Welcome aboard. :wave:

I agree with Verbena; I only have one cookbook (by Karen, forum founder ;) ) and 99% of what I cook doesn't require a recipe. Rather, I taught myself good cooking techniques. I make an amazing pork tenderloin in the oven, roasted chicken several different ways, my chili and soups are never quite the same twice, and there's nothing like hard-cooked eggs done the finicky way. I use my crockpot and contact grill quite regularly. Fairly simple meat + fairly simple veg.

Our kitchen forums have tons of great recipes. There's a table of contents at the top of each section, and in the Kitchen Talk (http://forum.lowcarber.org/forumdisplay.php?f=42) forum, there are lots of FAQ topics like lists of crock pot recipes, for example.

Have fun!